Tar Heels look to avoid more second-half snafus

By Bob Sutton / Times-News

Published: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 05:57 PM.

The exceptions to being outscored in the second halves in the last 11 games came in victories against Alabama-Birmingham (Tar Heels were plus-12 after halftime), McNeese State (plus-3) and Florida State (plus-3).

“I’d like to know that answer so we get that changed as soon as possible,” Paige said.

Maryland coach Mark Turgeon saw improvement from his team in the second half against North Carolina, but that might not have meant a whole lot.

“Maybe North Carolina wasn’t concentrating as much as if the score had been tied,” Turgeon said. “I think North Carolina is pretty good. Were they good earlier in the year? No. But they were good on Saturday.”

The Tar Heels are striving to be good all of the time — or at least most of the time.

“When you’re younger, you see a 22-point lead and you think everything is going to be rosy,” Williams said. “But this is the ACC and no one in this league is going to stop.”

The latest lesson came in the 62-52 triumph against Maryland, so it wasn’t a lost cause.

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina’s good stretches often come followed by less-desirable spans and it has coach Roy Williams sometimes going from delighted to gloomy.

In the last 11 games, the Tar Heels have been outscored in the second half in eight of those games.

So the rallying cry for a full 40 minutes of solid play has been mentioned repeatedly by Williams and his players.

“We weren’t able to maintain it,” guard Marcus Paige said after the sluggish second half in an eventual victory against Maryland on Saturday. “We got a little complacent. … We were a little excited we played such a good half.”

Paige called the first half the best half of the season for the Tar Heels, who take on visiting Georgia Tech on Wednesday night.

Williams said some second-half miseries have dampened the mood.

“We feel good, but we don’t feel good about the way we played the second half,” he said. “I want to show them on tape the second half and learn from it and hope to get better. … I’m about as ticked off about the second half as I can be.”

The exceptions to being outscored in the second halves in the last 11 games came in victories against Alabama-Birmingham (Tar Heels were plus-12 after halftime), McNeese State (plus-3) and Florida State (plus-3).

“I’d like to know that answer so we get that changed as soon as possible,” Paige said.

Maryland coach Mark Turgeon saw improvement from his team in the second half against North Carolina, but that might not have meant a whole lot.

“Maybe North Carolina wasn’t concentrating as much as if the score had been tied,” Turgeon said. “I think North Carolina is pretty good. Were they good earlier in the year? No. But they were good on Saturday.”

The Tar Heels are striving to be good all of the time — or at least most of the time.

“When you’re younger, you see a 22-point lead and you think everything is going to be rosy,” Williams said. “But this is the ACC and no one in this league is going to stop.”

The latest lesson came in the 62-52 triumph against Maryland, so it wasn’t a lost cause.

“I would say we kind of took a break in the second half, kind of took off the gas,” North Carolina guard P.J. Hairston said.

“I thought we did kind of get complacent,” teammate James Michael McAdoo said. “Great teams can’t do that. It’s us being young and something we’ve got to learn and keep coming out and being aggressive.”

The concept of completing the task with better second halves doesn’t seem all that complex to Williams.

“I’ve got a saying, ‘If you can do it once, you can do it more than once,’ ” he said.

Tip-off

Who: Georgia Tech (10-6, 0-4) at North Carolina (12-5, 2-2)

When: 9 Wednesday night (ESPN)

Where: Smith Center, Chapel Hill

Series: North Carolina leads 61-24

Notes: This will mark Georgia Tech’s third game in the Triangle in a 15-day span after losses at North Carolina State and Duke.